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Guild Wars 2 - A Look At The Cash Shop In 2020 - MMORPG.com
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Guild Wars 2 - A Look At The Cash Shop In 2020 - MMORPG.com
Join Steven as he breaks down the state of Guild Wars 2's cash shop in 2020. Guild Wars 2 has come a long way from its humble Buy to Play days. ArenaNet has always touted a fair cash shop, but after 8 years, and providing the entire legacy game free of charge with restrictions, has ArenaNet delivered their promise of keeping the cash shop to cosmetic and account specific items? The answer is actually kind of surprising.
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There do seem to be only minor P2W elements, unless posters know otherwise I think that's quite an achievement after eight years.
You do not in any way need to exchange gems or spend real money on these items, you can use in-game gold, that you can farm all on your own, without paying a cent to get them.
Also, IIRC, only Gen I legendary weapons are available on the AH, all the others are BtA.
I do not like devs interfering with the game world,cosmetics or not,a shop that is outside the game world is a big NO.There is also the possibility...probability that no matter what state a cash shop is presently in,can take a turn for the worse and ruining your experience within the game.
Simply put,devs should be told to keep your cash shop ideas away from our game.
If a developer wants to show some love to the people who made them rich,then add in some new content and assets for FREE.
A subscription is NOT the same thing as a cash shop because every single player is on the exact same pay system and items or other are not segregated into money segments.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
I mean no diss here, nothing personal, but GW2 is kinda flattened out, and I have come to believe that at this point they pretty much have done all they can do to alienate everyone and anyone that tried to be invested into the game, and all they have left are the uber-casuals that didn't care about any of that stuff to start with, and still don't care about it now.
And if they have half a clue, they will do what they can to keep that little group happy, which, to be fair, given how they seem to have slowed down their losses over the last few quarters, what they are doing right now (Which I have no clue about) seems to be somewhat working.
But with all that said, I would wager, given what I could find, your account might be worth anywhere from 100 - 300 USD.
Not a mansion, but if could be a great way to kick off into your next MMO?
Lotro is P2W, you can buy all sorts of stuff from Traits (I think they were called that?) to parts of legendary weapons, real shame as it is one of all time favourite MMOs. I remember when the cash shop launched and it was called the 'Turbine model' for the way it pushed players from using the cash shop to buying a subscription. Within a year that had all changed for the worse.
Lets hope we see some more articles like this, one of the first things I do now (and I am sure I am not alone) when checking to see if a MMO might be for me is to take an extensive look at the cash shop.
I get into the game, and see if I can fully enjoy the game without the cash shop, if the cash shop is invasive, that pulls away from the game for.
Case in point, BDO made it so that unless I bought all kinds of upgrades the whole game was a built around inconveniencing me. While not what I would call P2W, it was annoying, and pulled from the enjoyment of the game.
I played DDO, with is Turbines other game, and, yah, Turbine/Standing Stone games are just flat out P2W all the way through, from inconvenience like bank space/Shared bank, to the best classes/races/Trait lines being locked behind a paywall, to just flat out needing to buy packs to get access to the best gear or even most of the game, and last I looked they were selling levels directly.
I left a ways back because I used to be hardcore into that game, and raided a lot, and then they went and just screwed with their whole gear system and nerfed a lot of my existing raid gear, and when a company is willing to just screw over their players like that, the motive to give a fuck about the game, dies pretty quick.
To be honest, I liked their Module idea, AKA: Adventure Packs. As that just gave players the content, they still needed to earn the rewards. But, in today's market, I would never get into a game like what Standing Stone makes.
On the flip side of that, when I played GW2, I was vatly unaware of the Cash Shop, as it had little impact upon my game, it was not till they sold unbreakable harvesting tools that really I started to look at the Cash Shop.
Which was funny, because a lot of what they provided was more convenience, but at the same time it was kinda funny, because they put in this whole system of tiered nodes and tools, like they wanted players to think about this.. and then players were like "This Sucks" and they later, and slowly, put in unbreakable harvesting tools, it did not seem like that was their long plan, but it worked.
But then again, a lot of what GW2 does, does not seem to be something that was part of a "Long Plan" and more a "fly by the seat of their pants and wing it" which, IMHO, has done then a lot of harm.
And then I started playing mobile games.
Now I check the cash shop sometimes, but MMO's just don't do cash shop as good as mobile games. In a mobile game I ask myself "how can I get the most out of spending the least".
Many mobile games aren't necessarily P2W either, though some do allow for unlockable characters that you may otherwise, never get on an RNG roll, with such poor RNG statistics. For the most part though, I may spend anywhere from 2 - 5 dollars a month on a game I like, and I'm rewards very well for it.
In most MMOs you can't spend 5 dollars an get anything really. It's like, if you don't spend 20$ why spend anything at all?
Very Good Post!
Man, do you know how much you would have to pay for upkeep and taxes?
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
"fair" yes, but they do nothing but add stuff to it and focus less and less on the actual game.
- There is only one tool that gives 100% chance on removing an upgrade from gear, which is only available from the cash shop. This is a bad thing imo.
- Wings! I hate wings. They are not even folded. They are always open on players and imo they should slow down running because it would be almost like running around with an open parachute. I've never seen a more stupid idea implemented. I never saw a npc in GW2 have them. They look completely out of place in GW2.
- Over the top garish looking effects on skins (outfits,mounts). I secretly suspect that the players who run around like such an eyesore, turn graphics down so they don't suffer from it themselves
Also, put a couple of them together and you barely can see combat. GW2 lacks proper graphics settings that let you filter useless effects from combat visuals. And the cash shop skins made things worse. I don't know, it just screams to me' LOOK AT ME! PLZ! ACKNOWLEDGE ME!'
I guess I suffer from good taste.
Back on topic: I'm currently playing GW2 and I find the cash-shop offerings to be rather bland and mostly uninteresting. The only reason I buy Gems is to convert them to gold, when the exchange rate is favorable to me.
As for the legendary weapons in GW2...imo, they are not worth the MASSIVE amount of effort that it takes to get them. They have the exact same stats as the Ascended gear does...so, essentially, all you're getting for your months of effort is a fancy weapon skin. Again: not worth it, imo.
GW2 will be the last MMO that I'll be playing, like ever; until some Russian MMO developer makes a kick-ass sci-fi VR MMO, that is!
So I have to agree with you, that is a great idea to have NPC's, even MOB's using the In-store Cosmetic Items. I think that would really fancy the game up a lot. Especially if the MOBs wore some of the cosmetic items in the game, or used the cosmetic style weapons.
Also, GW2, Lovingly called "Fashion Wars 2" for the very reason that is a gaudy fashion show of players screaming look at me, and given that is how GW2 makes most of its money, it's full to bursting of a population that positively love that stuff, If you wanted a more sedated bland gaming experience, I would think BDO or ESO might be more your graphic taste.
and i keep most of my effects on.. i went to all the effort to look that shiny, i want to look at the shiny, darnit!
Also, having the citizens swap over to whatever was the outfit of the month, would be kinda cool as well. Basically remove their drab "NPC commoner" clothing that all games do, and replace it with store-skin clothing. While that might not work for every game, but in a game like GW2, where so much is about how you look, I think it would truly shine.
Also would be nice to see iconic NPC's wearing more Store Style clothing and items. Like having everyone in the Personal Story swap over to the current Black Lion Weapon skins every time a new style comes out, just to make it so that my character does not look ridiculously out of place in the cut scenes.
or this.
and well since so many of us like black on black with some more black.. it ends up like this.
So yah.. I love the idea of having NPC's also looking gaudy in a game like GW2, it would really fit.