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Guild wars 2 cash shop questions.
aguliondew
Member Posts: 95
in Guild Wars 2
I know that the first guild wars made money off of expansion packs and the cash shop but what type of items did people normally buy in the first Guild Wars cash shop? Just costumes and more bag space? or did Guild Wars cash shop add other unique items?
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I bought extra character slots. There was other stuff like costumes, the expansion packs, etc that I didn't buy.
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I bought expansions, one costume I really liked (the Lich one), and extra character slots
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
It was all cosmetic stuff or things that didn't give a player an advantage no one else could obtain. Biggest sellers, I'd guess, are character slots (I've purchased 9) likely followed by costumes.
In GW2, I expect similar things. To be honest, I wouldn't even care if they put in +xp scrolls or something, because the leveling is more or less irrelevant. Pretty sure they're also going to put in some unique Dyes.
I will become truly truly pissed if they put specific dungeons in there that can only be obtained via the store. That's complete horseshit to me because it severely fractures the community. Not to mention it singles out a specific group of people.
They might put mini expansions in it, you know like that pack with 3 scenarios you could buy for GW1 including the one about Gwen. No, I havn´t heard they say anything about it but it is a possibility.
I doubt they put in single dungeons though.
Just speculation on my part, but I wouldnt doubt seeing mini expansion content updates, not fixes or balancing updates, but actual playabe content, for sale, I've heard of no plans for this from GW2 devs but it is b2p so they do have to turn a good profit and i imagine if that were ever to make it into the cash shop it would depend on how fast they can spout out quality xpacs and how much people spend on the items that are in the cash shop at release, and continue to spend.
It is a possibility. But with the first game they released 2 new settings, one large expansion and one miniexpansion so I am guessing that they will put most of the work into larger full priced expansions.
The mini expansions is more something they used at least in the past to tell specific shorter stories in different time and place. Stuff not enough to make a large expansion and optional unlike the free updates.
So people mostly buoght customes and the next expansion from Guild War 1 I see. Anyway I hope that the GW2 item will add some unique items other than customes.
Ya loke, I agree they will probally do something along those lines, I just know for myself that if they do, I dont mind because any content they put out, I will continue to buy it as long as it remains up to the quality that I have seen from their company, and reasonably priced of course.
It is possible but don´t get your hopes up.
The one exception will probably be ranger pets, I can see them actually selling unique but balanced pets in the itemshop without upsetting too many people.
Mounts is also a possibility if they add them. Jeff (Grubb) have hinted that mounts actually were in the work but wouldn´t be in from launch. That doesn´t mean they ever will launch just that they are considering them.
But unique gear with stats? No.
One interesting possibility would be mini-story content that would take place in your Home District and include some visual upgrades and other cosmetic rewards for your Home District. Mini-pets are a likely possibility. Cosmetic Items for your character are a certainty. Character Slots, Storage upgrades, etc... are likely. I can imagine hairstuyles and other character creation options too, along with tickets to change your appearance. Nothing that will boost your stats or give you an advantage they have been clear on that.
They haven't ruled out some form of mini-expansion of content, but they have also said they won't do it if they can't do it in a way the community will find acceptable.
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
I wouldn't mind seeing more personal story content in the shop as long as it's a reasonable value. This would be the equivalent to the story packs they had in GW1, as they would be primarily single-player.
Selling dungeons, however, is a bad idea outside of expansion packs. Dungeons, being a primary form of multiplayer content, aren't really what I'd consider optional, and should only be added either for free or as a part of an expansion, as expansions aren't really supposed to be entirely optional. I mean, technically they are, but you know.
In GW1, they handled this well, with new dungeons being either free or expansion content.
"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." -Dr. Seuss
The difference between putting Dungeons into a cash shop and the BMP they put in for GW is that the BMP was singleplayer. As such, you didn't have to group. Thusly, It didn't fragment the community at all. I'm not saying BMP's are bad, just that putting a single group dungeon into the store for 5 bucks is complete horseshit. Once you reach that point, you're not only severely limiting who you can play the game with, but you'll likely also see guilds pop up that only recruit people with all content available (as it facilitates quicker grouping).
The BMP was incredible (Turai Ossa's has one of the best cutscenes in GW) and I'd be all for that kinda singleplayer expansion. In theory, they could offer it up for the members of Destiny's Edge, or specific leaders of individual races. That kinda stuff I would be ALL for.
I'm personally against unique weapons and the like being added to the store. They're usually VASTLY overpriced. Consider this:
The aforementioned BMP included 4 stories that could not be experienced elsewhere, each taking 10-20 minutes. Within each story were 4 various objectives. In addition to the weapons you got from 'being' the hero, each story also had 11 different completely unique weapon skins, with all attributes covered. The total price of the BMP was $10.
A mount in WoW is $25. A minipet is $10. A mount is LOTRO is around $25 if you don't use any of the points you've earned in-game (I give them credit for doing that). Armors in LOTRO (just did a quick glance at their store) cost between $2 and $7. That's one PIECE of armor!
Giving someone a glob of content like the BMP is awesome. Putting one sword in there is just lame and an attempt to milk cash IMO. I know these are businesses out to make money, but there's a difference in turning profits and flat out raping people.
I think its the best buisenessmodel ever, you want access to additional content you buy it.... if the extra costs are about $10 a month, i will buy everything, just like most other people i know. Its less then what you pay subscription in other games. And everyone should be able to pay just that much.
-I dont beleive it will split up the community, if the content is good enough for the right price everyone will buy it. Escept for those little koddis that dont have a job and live on their parrents money.
Putting a single item inthere, even if it where just cosmetic is far worse in my opinion.... Or extra skills ... Or anything else that gives your character an advantage
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
I'd like to see bonus missions, but I would want to play as my own character. With the whole "your story" thing they keep chanting, I don't think there's any reason to make me play as someone else. It could be something like the Shadowbroker mission from Mass Effect 2. It continues the story a little bit by elaborating more on one of the major characters. I found that to be a very good value.
Putting dungeons kind of does fragment the community. There might be a dungeon they add that's uninteresting to me, and I don't really want any of the armor. Most people will probably buy it, and suddenly I can't get any dungeon runs for a while because everyone is just running the new one. Or maybe it wasn't that popular after all, and most people didn't buy it. I want to run it because I love the armor set, but finding a group is pretty difficult.
As for items, I think that adding cosmetic items is perfectly fine as long they can't be traded.
What I'd actually like to see is cosmetic accessories you can obtain like scarves or maybe special goggles or tiny wings for your boots or something that can be worn on top of most armor. They should all be obtainable in-game, but very rare. Untradeable versions of the items could be sold in the store. As long as they don't have obnoxious things like giant angel wings or big pulsating auras, I think this would be a very acceptable way to make (a lot of) money.
"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." -Dr. Seuss
Not entirely sure if you played the first one (and I don't mean that in a condescending way), but it kinda worked as a way to expand the lore, which is why I suggested what I did. However, if they could find a way to expand upon OUR characters in a similar way, I'd be all about that. I personally would be very much in favor of expanding upon Destiny's Edge as much as possible, and it's most definitely something I'd buy.
Agree with you also on little cosmetic things. That's the kinda stuff that I think is more fitting of microtransactions than things like group content. I mean really, think about how much coin Arenanet will make once they put in Player Housing (which I'm fairly sure they said they would do when they do Guild Housing, after launch at some point). Sure, a lot will be available in games, but it's cosmetic stuff like that where microtransactions shine.
I think Cash Shops ultimately come back to pricing. As I illustrated already, 25 bucks for a mount is freaking absurd.
25$ for a mount is not as stupid as 20$ for a respec in the last ftp mmo I played. Dragon nest has good gameplay, for no content, really was just a grinding game.
Lots of people picked up the costumes as they were pretty cheap (about 5 bucks).
If you liked to PvP but not PvE you could also buy unlocking packs for all the abilities / items which could be unlocked through normal gameplay. You could also unlock all that stuff through PvP itself, so it was more of a timesaving thing than an advantage.
I wouldn't mind if ArenaNet go this route. Provide extra personal story stuff in the cash shop and leave the Dungeons to either free content updates or expansions. It never is good to fragment the community by selling group content in mini-chunks the majority of people choose not to buy.
They also sold skill unlocks and pet unlocks, though I have no idea how much money they made against vanity items.
I mean, I love GW and am hyped for GW2, but their cash shop wasn't as innocent as some make out.
My one fear for this game is that their owner/ publisher dosen't force a heavy mall on to them because they think the hype and loyal fanbase will stomach it. I know folks say it won't be so, they say it will be the same as GW1, but no one knows yet. I look at existing NCSoft cash shop prices and shudder tbh.
While NCS may be willing to leave ANet alone to build the game they will probably not be so hands off when it comes to selling it.
Just out of curiosity, what about the GW cash shop wasn't innocent?
For PvP characters only. Normal way was to unlock skills on your ordinary characters as you played through the campaigns, this basically saved you time.
And it's not as if ArenaNet can sell skills with the current skill acquisition system anyway. Your character in PvP will get all the skills and traits anyway and in PvE you earn weapon skill fairly easily and skill challenges for points don't seem too hard to come buy (with there being 200 in the world).
Selling anything that improves the abilities of your character without play involved moves you out of 'innocent' in my eyes.
This, for me, includes heroes, skill unlocks and such things as bank expansions (especially in a game like GW1 where much wealth was held in physical items).
I am not dramatic about this though, I have no extreme feeling about it and I love GW1, I am just saying that although the GW1 cash shop was ok (if you like cash shops) it wasn't the perfection that a lot make out.
Yep, I get that.