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Guild Wars 2: Item & Loot Reveal Thoughts
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
In his latest Guild Wars 2 column, MMORPG.com Community Manager Michael Bitton takes a look at the recently revealed Item and Loot Systems as detailed on the official Arena.Net blog. Mike is cautiously optimistic about several things but does express a bit of reservation about the item shop hinted at in the blog post by Arena.Net devs. Check out Mike's thoughts and then add your own to our forums.
In the original article, John started by emphasizing that ArenaNet is focused on “rewarding players individually.” Basically, they want to put an end to the annoying arguments or discussions revolving around loot. Devs want to eliminate the drama and uneventful content runs where players receive nothing either due to rolling poorly on loot or due to everyone’s favorite group member: the ninja looter. To that end, players get their own roll on loot. This applies to dungeons as well. Upon completing a dungeon each player can open the chest and get individual rewards. Resource mining works this way too; each resource node can be mined by multiple players.
Read more Guild Wars 2: Item & Loot Reveal Thoughts.
Comments
Dang, a cash shop. But I guess that was coming, the P2P MMOs even have them today.
Transmutation Stones sounds like another improvement in standard features that will be very welcome with open arms. Good job.
I think it's almost bordering on being "vogue" to be skeptical about any mention of in-game shops, but with this announcement, I'm not concerned in any way how they implement it, first they are getting the idea out of the door that there will be an in-game shop "for reals" and that just as with the HoM gets people's "spidey sense" all tingling (as everyone is so finely-tuned concerning fairness, right?) whereas vanity items are imo an ideal choice for in-game stores, as they are optional extras and not impact on how a player wants to play. and the follow Q&A suggests this is the case:
Clownsuits, that's catchy. Besides dull greens, greys & browns are best for pvp anyway
Edit: I am doing something wrong with the quote tags??
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014633/Classic-Game-Postmortem
if the shop is like GW 1's then im not worried.. they added perks is all and nothing benifit the char cept maybe more slots n pvp skills unlock (which u could buy ingame anyhow they added it as a pay also for the lazy folks).
I am not worried that they mess up the balance with the shop either, but I did hope that they would run it like the first GW.
Since strain left they started to sell a lot more junk even in the first game so I guess I should have expected this.
It is not a big turnoff but slightly annoying.
I hope they stay as limited to just "looks" as possible. Transmutation stones don't bother me, I am however, holding my breath at how the shop will turn out at release or say, 2 months after.
I fixed it for you. Try < blockquote > in the future.
They can say whatever they want so far from release, its what they actually do that matters.
They can say "vanity items only in the cash shop, Scout's honor" but what about 6 months or a year after release. What happens when box sales and vanity items isnt covering expenses?
ArenaNet may say "vanity items only" but NCSoft is the boss.
@ Loke
I don't get what you're slightly annoyed by. Even before Strain left they were selling skill unlock packs which could be considered controversial and slightly annoying but they aren't because A. The skills can be gotten for free in-game B. No matter how many skills you have it doesn't make you better at the game.
Being slightly annoyed by what they sell in the store is kinda silly especially when it doesn't do you any harm.
This is not a game.
Latest interview from Eric Flannum regarding T-stones and microtransaction. http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/90559/page/3
Ten Ton Hammer: Another hot topic with the community is the Transmutation Stones. There’s some concern about the extent of the microtransactions in the game, but I’m not going to ask you that question since I know you’re not there quite yet. But folks are wondering if things will remain mostly in the ‘services’ category, or if we’ll see other items for sale such as consumables or things of that nature.
Eric: I think we want to keep it in the vein of purely cosmetic stuff. Where that line is, is obviously arguable. For example I’ve seen places where a lot of people think Transmutation Stones aren’t purely cosmetic, but clearly we think it is. It’s almost like your definition of grind. It can be difficult to go to that point.
"We've already said what our leveling curve is like, so we're not going to turn around now and say we changed our minds and will be selling experience potions and scrolls. We're not going to do that."
A better way to phrase that is that it is not our intent to make it where people feel they have to purchase things to play the game, or feel like they need to spend money on additional things. For example we’ve gotten the question regarding transmutation stones of, “does this mean that you guys are making armors really ugly at higher levels because then that will force us to transmute.” Our answer was of course no, we would never do that. We’re considering this a convenience for players and a cool thing; we’re not going to cripple the game just to make a buck.
We’ve already said what our leveling curve is like, so we’re not going to turn around now and say we changed our minds and will be selling experience potions and scrolls. We’re not going to do that.
I mean, I can understand why there are trepidations about it. And the thing is we’re not asking people to just take our word for it, because we’ll release more details as soon as we’re ready to release them. The big thing I would say is that I hope they take it as a sign of integrity that we talked about the fact that transmutation stones are mostly available through the in-game store. The thing was we debated this internally where we said we really need to talk about the transmutation stones if we’re going to talk about how our items work and all of that. And our thought was that we really should because otherwise it would seem very much like a bait and switch if we never really bothered mentioning they’ll be available in the in-game store, and people will feel like we’re lying to them and we don’t want to do that.
Playing now: Cities: Skyline / Ori and the Blind Forest / Banished
GW1 had a cash shop and it was far from game-breaking. So will 2 and I'm sure they're going to do their best not to ruin the game with it and cause the elitists panic, but still also make some $ from it, too. Transmutation stones sound like a vanity item, anyway, so who cares if they are in the item shop or not? The game will have huge customization anyway fom what they revealed already about dying items, and I'm sure there will also be dyes in the item shop, too. Again, not game breaking, nothing to worry about.
I see from your article nothing to worry about. Even if they throw in a sparkle pony, it won't be the end of the world. Really, I can't wait for this game to come out. It will definitely live up to the hype. For all the worryers... don't play it, you'll only ruin the experience for those of us who actually enjoy a game for what it is instead of what we demand it to be and complain about it.
What exactly is annoying about the shop in gw1?
I'll wait until release to see what this store has. After all we have no idea what the development cost is. Box sales and a cash shop like GW1 might not cover the loss. Hopefully they stick to their word but sometimes money gets the best of people and if there in a loss, who knows what they will do to try and break even.
So, "Transmutation Stones" are the GW2 version of 'the Aggregator' in RoM. It works well enough in RoM and should be a decent source of revenue for ArenaNet from those players who want to min-max, but don't want to look like hobos to do so.
Of course GW2 will have a cash shop, like GW1 had one. Don't expect them to run a B2P game without any extra income, and if it is done like it was in GW1 (which it looks like for the moment) it won't be gamebreaking at all.
Until the details are finalised I'm going to trust Anet on this one, they haven't let me down yet so I've no reason to think otherwise. Mentioning transmutation stones briefly in that article was a great way to get feedback on the subject of the item shop and they've obviously been following it.
The question to me is always about how much I think the game is worth investing in, the more I enjoy the more I'm likely to spend, create any frustrating experience to get me to the cash shop and it marrs my enjoyment, it has the opposite of the intended effect. I'm sure I'm not uncommon with that and I'm sure it's the sort of thing Anet think about, frustration = bad emotion, treating yourself to fluff because your enjoying the game and getting good value is more like a real treat, you do it for you and because you think what your playing is worth it.
If the original shop is anything to go by it is likely that inventory will be available, space was generous to start with and you can earn extra in the game so it was never a real frustration.
It's going to be interesting to see how it develops, I respect them and I'm not blind to business costs, I really can't see them trying to rip us off in any way shape or form.
DCUO is already doing transmutation, sorry anet, you were beat to the punch. I wish this site would give proper credit to good mmo ideas.
Also, I have to comment about something. In a serious MMO with raiding guilds and such, it's likely each player despite getting their own loot will have to report it to the raid leader for distribution whether you've got your grubby hands on it or not.
I see only two possible solutions. Horrible soulbinding bullcrap mechanics for every single bit of loot you get, or removing player to player trading in favor of a one-stop auction house. Only then will players loot truly be their own and not subject to the whims of a 50 DKP MINUS! type egomaniac.
The item shop should be a great endevor if done properly most mmos/mmorps utilize these type of shops. People dont have to buy from the shop, but those who do will eventually give arenanet the funds to expand the game with regular content to expand on their "persistant world" model. Im sure arenanet will only put specialized things into the shop that has no barings on the game an its world status. (for example the transmutation stones) Look at Nexon an how long they survived, now their not my fav company but lookin at their buisness model an their item shop they dont quite well with it. Curious to see if arenanet can do the same.
As far as the items an loot system by what I read Im quite pleased with it. Be looking forward to learning more info about the inner workings on my fav franchise in the up comin weeks, till its eventually release.
http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/1566/divinetyrant.png
You know DCUO isn't the first one to do this. Aion, LOTRO and Runes of Magic have something similar to a transmutation system.
Playing now: Cities: Skyline / Ori and the Blind Forest / Banished
That won't be the case, there will be no need for DKP systems, you take part, contribute, get your token, go get the weapon or amour part you want, rinse and repeat.
Agreed, I've used the GW1 shop for purchasing extra toon slots. I just think it'll be amusing to see if they incorperate it in-game. I can see it now, I'm breaking out my credit to give my number to a Charr merchant....HAHAHAHA!!!
I am less than thrilled about a cash shop, and not really a gear or stat fanatic either. Personally, I've found both of these mechanics have been used to exclude players from one another in the past. However, I feel that the developers really care about bringing the community together in this game, or are at least concerned about it, so I will have faith in them for the time being.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
Yeah just be patient and see how thing shake-out. Either way I think those that choose to play it will have fun
They do, during one of the past gaming conventions they allowed a small chunk of people to actually participate in, and help, design an event that'll actually be implemented. Not alot of companies are willing to do such a thing without a catch.
and if you check out the cash shop for GW1, its far from anything horrible.
https://secure.ncsoft.com/cgi-bin/Store.pl?dnv=6314725882&action=toggleCategory&category=4
They offer a standalone PVP client, skill packs and equipment packs for it (if you want), the customary name/appearance changes, and a few spiffy costumes. Everything can be gained, with relative ease, through the campaign mode. I'm sure it won't be too far-fetched to believe that these transmutation stones will be earnable in-game, even if it requires a bit of work.
I'll admit though, they do some damn good jobs on designing all their armors, no one piece looks like utter crap, to me at least.
We will have to pay for expansions that get released every other month
Your not accounting for greed though. I think the phrase, whatever the market will bare fits there, any kind of item mall tends to get me backing away and looking at it again.. It's vanity now, but i have yet to see a cashshop not be game breaking at some point in the future. If at the very least NC will pressure them to keep bring in more money especially if it's going to do as well as everyone thinks it will.
Help me Bioware, you're my only hope.
Is ToR going to be good? Dude it's Bioware making a freaking star wars game, all signs point to awesome. -G4tv MMo report.