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Double Standards?
lifeordinary
Member Posts: 646
I am amazed at the amount of support and defense for Anet over the way they have decided to maximize their profits through lottery system. Yes it is a business and they are in here to make money but is it the only way? by feeding of the addiction of players?
The very same people who are defending Anet over this are the same people who would in past rip anything apart as long as it included word 'cash shop' . (yes posting history is a great thing)
The fact is that if Anet had made these new items available through halloween activities they would gain no profit out of it. That is why selling keys or selling gems which can be converted to gold, in both situtaion Anet makes big profits.
Now before someone says 'you are not entitled' or 'it is not needed'...for me it is more of a moral issue than anything else. I don't like what MMOS have been reduced to in current times.
My question is simple, would you defend this lottery system / gambling involving real life cash if it was any other company say Bioware, Crytpic, Funcom or SOE? if not then why Anet gets free pass on everything? why such blatant double standards by the community?
Comments
I barely read any of this just because ... Well..
You're surprised that a MMO is feeding off of addiction.. Like.. Really?
This is the ENTIRE basis for like every MMO thats been succesful, EVER
Well you should have read further because i asked a very simple question if you will or will not support other companies who would implement similar system for events in future.
Yes all MMOS work on concept of addiction but there is a line which when you cross the whole things becomes very obvious. And i am talking about events like Halloween designed specificaly for this very sole reason.
That wasnt what he was getting at. Re read that.
Did you really expect anything different from some of those overly zealous fans? I think GW2 is fine for what it is, but some of those people take being a fan to a whole new level.
I don't think gambling should be illegal so of course I'm not going to express moral outrage. I think everyone should have the right to do whatever they want with their money.
And what do you think trying and getting a drop from a boss is? It's gambling. Why were you not here to express your moral outrage to all the games that include loot tables in order to get gear that you actually NEED to progress?
To me, you look like the one with double standards. You never held anyone else accountable before and yet here you are trying to attack ANet on the issue.
Yeah need / greed roll on an item is same as encouraging people to throw real life cash for lottery system. You got me.
Thanks for proving my point..this is the sole reason why i made this topic so that i can understand this sheer display of hypocricy.
Also if it was any other company you wouldn't defend them. You do so only because it is Anet.
Too late....
1.) The items must NOT be neccessary in order to access any other content
2.) "Lottery" through cash shop must NOT be the only means of obtaining these OPTIONAL items
Fortunately GW2 met my two conditions. I honestly don't care if Bioware, Cryptic, Funcom, or SOE do this as long as they meet my two requirements.
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
Play for fun. Play to win. Play for perfection. Play with friends. Play in another world. Why do you play?
BLC items are only avilable through chest or trade on TP which again encourages peope to buy gems to convert to to gold in order to purchase those. Assuming everyone has so much gold that they can freely onvert it to ge and not worry about spending any cash. Which is highely unlikely.
I would agree with you if those items were avilable through events but Anet took that option out why? because if people get those as rewards for doing events there cash shop is completely ruled out and they make no profit.
Its ironic coming from someone who spends majority of his time defending GW2 and doing damage control. Read my above reply because i don't want to repeat myself i ahve already answered why CS is centre point of this event. My post is not just about lottery but how whole Halloween event is designed around CS.
i dont understand your point
theres many other MMOS that do this
like Atlantica Online or Sword2 but these give you gear with better stats (p2w)
i dont have problem with ANet you can buy these skins from TP and not with real money
and after event is over you can never get it again they will be uniqe
I don't think you read what I wrote.
I am not against gambling. There is no hypocrisy if I am not against gambling.
Your double standard is painfully obvious to everyone, that's why a few are already pointing it out. In WoW, you pay $15/month to play a game. Every time you try and kill a boss, there is a chance an item drops. If it does not drop, you have just used your $15 in a less than optimal way in a very similar fashion to someone that buys a few keys to open chests and don't get what they want.
Also - YOU CAN BUY KEYS WITH GEMS THAT YOU CAN BUY WITH IN GAME GOLD. On top of that, these are for skins that do not help you in any way except to make you look better.
All I see is your blatant double standards and fake outrage.
DAOC Live (inactive): R11 Cleric R11 Druid R11 Minstrel R9 Eldritch R6 Sorc R6 Scout R6 Healer
so basically you are saying everything in the game on the TP encourages converting gems to gold which in turn supports their CS.. and in that same thought every game out their would encourage people to support gold selling websites because there is really expensive stuff on the auction houses
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
Sigh doesn't OP forget the basic for it all.
Vanity. Thesse items are for looks only. its totally optional if you want them.
Some of these drops as a rare drop from chests, wich is opened with keys often bought with gems.
But these vanity skins can still be bought on the TP from other players with gold.
So even if you are a dress code addict, there is nothing that prevents you from playing the market and use your gains on thesse items.
Where is the problem??
if OP really want to attack the GW2 fans from being rabiate defenders of anything comming from ArenaNet i think OP can find better cases than this
----
I am no favorite of the gems buying keys system, but i was much more wary about the exp boosters, and they turn out to be a thing i don't find that big problem with.
If i really should bitch at ArenaNet about this, it would be that they fail to make the game challanging enough that gaining equipment other than vanity could hold the interest for long.
But that still doesn't make their cash shop ventures offensive imho.
Except for you no one else called me out for having a double standard. So who are these everyone? this is a very old trick by the way. Including world like 'majority' or 'everyone to give more weight to your opinion.
I pay 15 bucks in other MMOS for whole month and not just to do dungeons to need or greed. How is that even comparable to an event designed around CS which encourages people to spend large amount of money on lottery system?
And yes you can buy these items off the CS too granted you have large amount of gold to conver to gems. if not you again have to spend cash to buy gems and convert to gold to buy these items.
Anet planned this well that is why they took third option out, rewarding these items through events.
Where are all the threads defending the system? Yesterday's posts were about how it was gambling and a 'cash grab'.
Where do you see this double standard by the community?
"So who are these everyone? this is a very old trick by the way. Including world like 'majority' or 'everyone to give more weight to your opinion." - lifeordinary
Like when someone says that Anet gets a free pass on everything? Or that this view they are rallying against is held by the community?
Entitlement can sometimes really cloud someone's perspective, man.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
http://gw2.mmorpg-life.com/developer-corner-clarification-on-halloween-skins/53860/
http://guildwars2.stratics.com/posts/crafting-the-halloween-exotics-by-reddit-poster-redredditrabbit/
But it seems to me that the only way to please you is if they made the skins a direct reward for doing the halloween events.
You don't ahve to spend any cash. There are items on the market right now - for gold. You can also buy gems with gold.
What are you even arguing anymore? Let people spend their real life money or in game gold however they want to. Your moral outrage is just silly to me at this point. Especially over a few cosmetic pieces of gear in an MMORPG that can be bought directly off the market..
And like the other guy said, you can craft these things as well.
Is that so bad? keep items still rare and unique but let players win those by playing events? but that means less profit for Anet through CS.
These cash shops are killing the genre. It doesn't matter to me if it's cosmetic or P2W. Besides, in GW2 WvWvW is P2W, and if the endgame dungeons had any glimpse of difficulty and competition compared to what's seen in other games of the genre, those would be P2W too, as the best guilds of the world would need those huge 10% buffs enabled full time to keep up with the pace of progress. You know, those 10% buffs that can be found pretty much exclusively by buying keys with gems after the few you get while completing your storyline, and the extremelly odd one you get dropped once in a blue moon (while conveniently you get Black Boxes at 10x or 20x rate).
I miss the days when you could buy a game, happily pay an insignificant monthly fee, and have access to -everything- in the game. Cosmetic benefits? Do the quests necessary to obtainthem. A cute pet? Do the meta-achievement necessary to get it. Elixirs of +10% buffs? Make them for you and your guild through alchemy. Infinite siege weapons in PvP? Nope. PvP is only fun when it's balanced, there shouldn't be a team having infinite siege weapons for any reason of the world. And much less because they're willing to spend more real cash than you.
It's all bollocks, and thanks to this consumist society being implanted into mmo's, the genre is as good as dead, and soon it'll be owned by kids with daddy's credit card while the gamers had to go back to long and yearn for the really good games that were made for gamers once upon a time.
My opinion is my own. I respect all other opinions and views equally, but keep in mind that my opinion will always be the best for me. That's why it's my opinion.
One crucial bit of information you may want to think about before posting this...
Everything available in this holiday event (and the game in general) can be obtained without spending a dime of your actual money (excluding the box price of the game itself of course).
As such your entire point is moot. Invalid.
You're putting more of a double standard on the game than other people are, by picking and choosing which facts you want to pay attention to.
- To answer your question, though, I have absolutely no problem w/ gambling. Hell, I've been to vegas, I play poker on occasion; gambling can be a lot of fun. The problem with making such a comparison, though, is that your skirting the issue here. People don't give other companies a hard time because of a double standard. They give companies like SOE a hard time because they choose to implement systems which deliberately harm your gaming experience in an attempt to milk additional money off of you. There's a pretty big difference between that, and what Anet has done so far. If I don't buy a magic pumpkin hat. Guess what? It absolutely doesn't affect my gaming experience. I may be sad I don't have a pumpkin hat, but it doesn't prevent me from enjoying the game.
In comparison, look at some of the other games that have released under controversy. Mass Effect 3 released with key components to the plot deliberately excluded, and presented in an on-release DLC. SWTOR is releasing a F2P model that prevents you from playing the game over a certain amount of time unless you pay for a subscription, or invest heavily in the cashshop. EQ2 released with a pretty fair subscription model, and then began diverting more and more of the content towards the cashshop, while keeping the subscription model for a long time.
As for your other examples.. Cryptic has actually been recieved fairly well with it's F2P model. People generally respond positively to that company, so I'm not sure where the flak is really coming from here. As for Funcom, they get more flak for launching extremely buggy, unpolished games when it comes to their MMOs. People only ever bring up their business model because they feel it's a bit steep considering the state their last couple of games have launched in.