Pre-Purchase, Microtransactions, & In-Game Purchases

[Vasyl]

I have to say I support you Vayne.
but for me it's because I don't see the issue (I probably don't understand it). To me it's like everyone has chicken little syndrome. Almost everyone seems to be screaming the sky is falling about a game that might fail in this one aspect that to me should only be of concern to the people making the game. The Cash shop is how the people who made the game make money. They need to make money to make sure their servers continue to run so that we (the players) have a great game to play.

[Ruse]

I'm trying to remember if heroes could use elite skills if you bought the packs or not, straight out of the box. I thought they could, but I'm old enough where my memory sucks badly.

In any event, I'm not thrilled with everything, as I said...but I still really want to believe in the people behind the company. If I get proved wrong, it's gonna hurt pretty bad, considering how much I supported them in the first place.

Guess I'm just not ready to give up hope quite yet.

I'm going to assume they could. Even still, I dunno, I muddled through so much content with crap builds, lol. Hardmode is a different story but by that point you've been through the campaign so you can just cap/buy the skills.

Anyways, I'm the eternal pessimist when it comes to game companies, lol. I can't help myself.

[Vayne]

I have to say I support you Vayne.
but for me it's because I don't see the issue (I probably don't understand it). To me it's like everyone has chicken little syndrome. Almost everyone seems to be screaming the sky is falling about a game that might fail in this one aspect that to me should only be of concern to the people making the game. The Cash shop is how the people who made the game make money. They need to make money to make sure their servers continue to run so that we (the players) have a great game to play.

Vasyl, the points people are making are valid...not so much for what this stuff does now...but if you cross this line and we accept it, where will the next line be drawn.

The stuff being offered in the shop at this point, for what we've seen is not game breaking...what it does it estabilish a precedent. There is an advantage to having more karma than another guy playing the same amount of time. You can buy a better weapon.

I don't personally believe this will make a big difference, but the other argument is this...what if this is only the first step of a dramatic shift. What if it doesn't end here? What if this stuff doesn't sell and Anet ups the duration to 24 hours. Suddenly it's a big difference.

What if they start selling stuff that really DOES affect balance significantly. The only way to be sure that Anet is not going to do this, is if they don't start.

Me, I believe they won't do that, because I think I know the guys doing it. But that all goes out the window if the game starts losing money down the road.

So the question is, if I were in Anet's shoes would I do this, and hope that I could keep the faith, or would I take a real gamble and have nothing but cosmetics in the shop.

I think the stakes are too high for the risk. To us, this is a game. To Anet employees it's a livlihood. Lives and be made and broken on decisions made here.

Let's hope they made the right ones.

[Malcolm Phoss]

Why does everyone care so much about people getting to 80 faster, or getting the best gear first.. This game revolves around how good YOU are, not what you have.. I think the reason why so many people are getting emotion is because they are simply.. Confused, Confused because they have no idea whats coming, just because your buddy hits lvl 50 because he used a couple exp boosts, while your only 47.

You can still play together, no matter where you are in the world your character will be Up/down converted to reach the lvl of that area. (of course you wont have any different skills if you go to a higher lvl area) So what your buddy can craft an amazing bow for lvl 40's, and you can only create a wooden staff for lvl 20's.

I mean are these people who get so emotional over this extremely competitive or just confused?


Maybe i'm just confused...

[LoneJacobs]

The point alot of people (i think) are trying to say is this....IF they do offer xp scrolls, you dont earn them. You just go and throw some money into the cash shop and bam xp. You didnt have to kill X amount of mobs and finally get one or fight these monsters and get one. No sense of accomplishment. I think alot of people want Everyone to have to work for their bread and butter in GW2. not "Pay to win". I dont mean that getting an xp scroll will help you win, i mean that you paid for xp scroll instead of killing mobs.

[Malcolm Phoss]

ah I understand that, but doesn't the Exp boost only give you 50% more exp for killing mobs, so the time you took to actually get the money, to buy the gem stones and purchase a scroll, you would already have more exp than the guy does who bought the scroll with RL money.

[Ruse]

Why does everyone care so much about people getting to 80 faster, or getting the best gear first.. This game revolves around how good YOU are, not what you have..

While I'm sure this is more true in this game than in most, ArenaNet has already said gear will be much more important in GW2 than in GW1, so it IS an advantage. A great player in sucky gear will no doubt struggle in the hardest content. And level matters in WvW.

That said, Vayne pretty much hit on my issue, at least...which is the whole "slippery slope" argument. Sure, it's just slight boosts now...but what happens if they don't make as much money as they hoped/needed right off? Martin Kerstein saying that it doesn't matter what's in the cash shop because you can also buy that stuff with gold opens the door for a lot of stuff to come in down the road.

And at least for me, that's the most worrying thing.

[Vayne]

While I'm sure this is more true in this game than in most, ArenaNet has already said gear will be much more important in GW2 than in GW1, so it IS an advantage. A great player in sucky gear will no doubt struggle in the hardest content. And level matters in WvW.

That said, Vayne pretty much hit on my issue, at least...which is the whole "slippery slope" argument. Sure, it's just slight boosts now...but what happens if they don't make as much money as they hoped/needed right off? Martin Kerstein saying that it doesn't matter what's in the cash shop because you can also buy that stuff with gold opens the door for a lot of stuff to come in down the road.

And at least for me, that's the most worrying thing.

Gear will be more important than GW 1, but nowhere NEAR the importance of other MMOs. Other MMOs don't normalize at top level, GW 2 will, so the bonus, at most is extremely temporary.

Let's say you get a weapon that's level 30 and you're level 28. IF you can use it, because you can't just use higehr level weapons, they have requirements, it might take someone an extra half an hour to have that same weapon anyway. At that point, the difference is so small, you won't notice it. No one would. It will be noticed, maybe if two players have identicle skill exactly. But if not, the better player WILL win a one on one match, and that, for me is the bottom line.

As much as armor makes a difference, GW 2 IS more skill based than stat based, compared to any MMO I've seen.

[Malcolm Phoss]

That said, Vayne pretty much hit on my issue, at least...which is the whole "slippery slope" argument. Sure, it's just slight boosts now...but what happens if they don't make as much money as they hoped/needed right off? Martin Kerstein saying that it doesn't matter what's in the cash shop because you can also buy that stuff with gold opens the door for a lot of stuff to come in down the road.

And at least for me, that's the most worrying thing.

Yea I understand how you could be worried about that, but when it comes to items that could actually effect someones stats and abilities, wouldn't that make it an unfair advantage? Why would Arenanet Go back on what they Quoted "it’s never OK for players who spend money to have an unfair advantage over players who spend time."

Why is it never ok? because it would be unfair... Who in their right minds would want to destroy a fairly balanced game (To my knowledge) like Guild wars 2, by adding armor sets, and skill boosts in the cash shop? Nobody.. it just doesn't seem like a good idea.

I'm pretty sure the Devs at Arenanet have talked this over, they aren't going to try and make any unfair decisions like you think will come if they don't make as much as they hoped..

If you don't trust Arenanet, why spend money on a their game?

TBH: This topic shouldn't even be here, it doesn't help anyone because it's stuff that has already been stated in previous threads. Though it seems to be the most emotional..

[Ruse]

Yea I understand how you could be worried about that, but when it comes to items that could actually effect someones stats and abilities, wouldn't that make it an unfair advantage? Why would Arenanet Go back on what they Quoted "it’s never OK for players who spend money to have an unfair advantage over players who spend time."

Well, they could weaseldick around it because you can use in-game cash to buy gems to buy cash shop stuff with (IE, you don't technically have to spend real money to get it). Which is basically what they've already stated with that quote of Martin's.

EDIT:

If you don't trust Arenanet, why spend money on a their game?

That's exactly my position. I'm trying to decide if I do, else I won't be buying.

And I suppose we could always merge it into the other thread...though that gets messy sometimes.