MMORPGs with the best Cash Shop

GPrestige

As the MMO genre moves along, it's become common to have some sort of in-game store. To be honest, sometimes I thoroughly enjoy them and find them quite addicting.

In your opinion, which MMO do you think has the best cash shop? This could be in terms of pricing, coolest items, catalog size, etc.

simsalabim77

Archeage. 

ThumbtackJ

As far as MMOs go, the fairest cash shops (which are what I would consider 'best') have been in games like Trove, Aion, Rift, ESO, GW2, and TERA (from what I can remember). I'm sure there's plenty of other ones. where you can't flat out directly buy power. That's my big no-no, where-as selling cosmetic items, exp boosts, inventory space, etc. doesn't affect me at all. 


Of course, this gets into the whole, "what is pay to win?" For me it's just flat out being able to buy power. But others have attempted to argue that inventory space, selling game time for in game currency, cash shop only mounts, etc. are all pay to win in their opinion.

waynejr2

ThumbtackJ said:

As far as MMOs go, the fairest cash shops (which are what I would consider 'best') have been in games like Trove, Aion, Rift, ESO, GW2, and TERA (from what I can remember). I'm sure there's plenty of other ones. where you can't flat out directly buy power. That's my big no-no, where-as selling cosmetic items, exp boosts, inventory space, etc. doesn't affect me at all. 


Of course, this gets into the whole, "what is pay to win?" For me it's just flat out being able to buy power. But others have attempted to argue that inventory space, selling game time for in game currency, cash shop only mounts, etc. are all pay to win in their opinion.

"fairest cash shop" is mmorpg politics.  If some of the people are paying to play and others get to play for free, then those spending zero are getting the most power per dollar in a sense. So from a 'fair' point of view, that would be unfair.  It would also be unfair to have paying players have to subsidize free to play players.  NOTE:  I didn't take it there, you did.

The best cash shop games are the ones that give the best value for money.   You get to decide for yourself what is best value for your play style needs.  Freeloaders shouldn't get a say.

GeezerGamer

What are you looking to accomplish with it and how much do you want to spend?

Solar_Prophet

TERA and ESO have the best cash shops I've encountered. Marvel Heroes' shop is also very good. Path of Exile's is good, but they have a weird definition of pay-to-win and the prices are pretty high. Though to be fair, the cosmetic items do look pretty awesome. 

nariusseldon

marvel heroes

buying class (i.e. heroes) and costumes (mostly cosmetics) seem reasonable to me. 

PottedPlant22

TSW

bcbully

ESO has the the most non p2w cash shop. Cosmetics and potions that are weaker than the ones in game. 

Albatroes

DMKano said:

Rift has the best and most robust cash shop hands down.

There are 1000s of items listed in there with all kinds of types of currency from in-game to gold to pvp to raid, cash shop credits - the level of integration is amazing.

No other cash shop comes even close in terms of scope or integration that I have seen yet.

I'd agree that Rift has one of the fairest Cash Shops. People can QQ that you can buy raid tier gear in the cash shop but honestly, the prices are so bloody high per piece and the gear is so easy to get that it makes me sad for people who actually do. GW2 and Tera were pretty good too.

ThumbtackJ

Albatroes said:

DMKano said:

Rift has the best and most robust cash shop hands down.

There are 1000s of items listed in there with all kinds of types of currency from in-game to gold to pvp to raid, cash shop credits - the level of integration is amazing.

No other cash shop comes even close in terms of scope or integration that I have seen yet.

I'd agree that Rift has one of the fairest Cash Shops. People can QQ that you can buy raid tier gear in the cash shop but honestly, the prices are so bloody high per piece and the gear is so easy to get that it makes me sad for people who actually do. GW2 and Tera were pretty good too.

And isn't the gear previous tier gear? 

azurrei

DMKano said:

ThumbtackJ said:

Albatroes said:

DMKano said:

Rift has the best and most robust cash shop hands down.

There are 1000s of items listed in there with all kinds of types of currency from in-game to gold to pvp to raid, cash shop credits - the level of integration is amazing.

No other cash shop comes even close in terms of scope or integration that I have seen yet.

I'd agree that Rift has one of the fairest Cash Shops. People can QQ that you can buy raid tier gear in the cash shop but honestly, the prices are so bloody high per piece and the gear is so easy to get that it makes me sad for people who actually do. GW2 and Tera were pretty good too.

And isn't the gear previous tier gear? 

It is.

But while most other posts are focused on pricing (as far as which cash shop is the fairest) - that was not the focus of my post at all.

I am saying that Rift has the best cash shop due to sheer scope and integration -as in technically it is the most advanced cash shop I've seen period. 

I have to agree - very easy to emulate too.  All you have to do is literally put every single vendor in the game into your cash shop and allow people to buy everything with real money in addition to in game currency...brilliant.  All embellishing aside, all Trion did was add vendors to the cash shop for convenience, which is nice...and yeah, a lot  of that is available for real money (but not everything...) otherwise it wouldn't get the Trion "F2P" stamp of approval.

scorpex-x

Best: Tera, Gw2 and ESO

Worst: FFXIV (subscription, game & expansion purchase with a huge cash shop)
The thing that makes it the worst isn't just that they are greedy and are adding a massive cash shop to a p2p game, it's that if you buy items on the cash shop and then cease your sub you can't access your bought items anymore.

sunandshadow

Any game where one player can buy cash shop currency with $ and then sell it to another player for in-game currency or use it to buy items from other players gets major bonus points from me when I'm ranking cash shops.

Reizla

scorpex-x said:

Worst: FFXIV (subscription, game & expansion purchase with a huge cash shop)
The thing that makes it the worst isn't just that they are greedy and are adding a massive cash shop to a p2p game, it's that if you buy items on the cash shop and then cease your sub you can't access your bought items anymore.

Isn't World of Warcraft in the same boat..?

Ridelynn

I play FFXIV and I don't even know how to get to the cash shop - that's about how little it matters in that game.

Warlyx

Reizla said:

scorpex-x said:

Worst: FFXIV (subscription, game & expansion purchase with a huge cash shop)
The thing that makes it the worst isn't just that they are greedy and are adding a massive cash shop to a p2p game, it's that if you buy items on the cash shop and then cease your sub you can't access your bought items anymore.

Isn't World of Warcraft in the same boat..?

is scorpex-x ....he has a personal vendetta against FFXIV for unknow reasons.

"massive cash shop" lawl

Ridelynn said:

I play FFXIV and I don't even know how to get to the cash shop - that's about how little it matters in that game.

u cant access the shop ingame , is only from the web (mogstation), so u dont see any cash shop button ingame at all.

Phry

scorpex-x said:

Best: Tera, Gw2 and ESO

Worst: FFXIV (subscription, game & expansion purchase with a huge cash shop)
The thing that makes it the worst isn't just that they are greedy and are adding a massive cash shop to a p2p game, it's that if you buy items on the cash shop and then cease your sub you can't access your bought items anymore.

FFXIV has a small cash shop that is literally a few costumes, minions, and a couple of mounts, you can't even use the mounts until you unlock them in the game through natural progression, and the minions don't give any benefits other than being interesting to see, the few pieces of cosmetic gear don't have stats, so don't give any benefits, and using them in combat would put you at a serious disadvantage, which to me sounds like you haven't researched the FFXIV cash shop at all, and with that qualifier, is your knowledge of the Tera, GW2 and ESO cash shops of a similar standard?

Anthur

The best of the worst addition to MMORPGs since the invention of this genre ?

I really don't know as I haven't played all MMOs yet and I am loosing contact to this genre for some time now. So I am not up to date.

Would probably be a cash shop which only sells stuff like server transfers, name changes and additional character slots. But nothing which would actually add and improve the gameplay and therefore belongs into the game and not a cash shop. Does such a cash shop even exist ?

But this is just the oppionion of someone who used to play MMOs. You can just ignore me.

zaberfangx

Is it wildstar pretty good cash shop?

Po_gg

Torval said:

...

Nice list - especially since the question is very generic
But I agree, if OP seeks "best shop", then a similar approach of interfaces, navigation, etc. could serve the most fitting answer, regardless of the game itself. For example I really don't like GW2 (except SAB), but as Torval writes, strictly by handling and implementation the shop there is nicely done.

Neverwinter and STO - man, you always forget to add CO, it has the same

LotRO's recent store upgrade was good - I think the old store looked better, but for handling the new one is easier. Also it's "sleeker", old version kept 2, occasionally 3 threads of awesomium up, the new one uses only 1, and that's only active while you actually browse the store. (for the record, awesomium s.cks. Big time )

zaberfangx

Torval said:

zaberfangx said:

Is it wildstar pretty good cash shop?

Wildstar has a very easy to use cash shop with items that are pretty reasonably priced.

I have not played for abit but did check it out when it went free to play there cash shop good aloud people to get it in game with marks other then being locked out cash shop for cash only. I have not check it now if they did any cash only times.

jmcdermottuk

I'd have to pick Aion for best shop, although that may have changed since I last played it. When it was NCSoft it was pretty much cosmetic items only. Not so sure now that it went F2P and handed off to a third party.

feroshus

Star Citizen obviously. It has stuff worth like 15 grand in it. Clearly it's the best if it sells stuff worth that much.

scorpex-x

Reizla said:

scorpex-x said:

Worst: FFXIV (subscription, game & expansion purchase with a huge cash shop)
The thing that makes it the worst isn't just that they are greedy and are adding a massive cash shop to a p2p game, it's that if you buy items on the cash shop and then cease your sub you can't access your bought items anymore.

Isn't World of Warcraft in the same boat..?

The cash shop in wow is much smaller, even though it's far older.
The cash shop in FFXIV is huge and gets updated every couple of months, their cash shop gets more updates than most f2p games. 
The cash shop in FFXIV sells inventory space, in a p2p game.
The cash shop content creators are paid staff, from the subscription.
Just because WoW does it, does not make it acceptable for anyone else doing it.

Albatroes

There's kind of a big difference between WoW's cash shop and FFXIV's (not defending either). WoW wastes development time making stuff specificially for their cash while FFXIV just sells previous seasonal/event items while giving people 1 (sometimes 2-3 chances) to get the items for free before just selling them (again not defending either). Honestly, both games are very similar end game wise, where I feel FFXIV provides more stuff to do while WoW is superior in how they handle the details of their grind (both are pretty meaningless gear grinds that will provide nothing to carry over into their expansions other than vanity items).