To developers

Hi everyone, I don't think I am the first one to make this kind of post but I need to do it because I would like to be heard by the community AND developers.

First you have to know that I really love Guild Wars 2. I love the lore, the game, the characters (except Trahearn) and I've been exploring Tyria since Guild Wars 1. But I am sad and upset. When I see all that stuff coming on the gemme store, it kinda breaks my heart to see a game like this one using this kind of system. It is not that I am against cash shops in video games as long as it is not pay to win and I know you guys have to pay your employees. But I am angry everytime I see a new armor/weapon/mount skin in the gemme store. Most of them are incredibly beautiful and it shows how talented your designers are. But don't you think that sometimes players want to play to get that skins instead of using their credit cards? (or convert lots of gold into gemmes) In Guild Wars 1, when you wanted to have a beautiful armor, you had to work to get it, to gather gold, materials, ... to craft it. And at the end you were proud of youself, because you had to move your ass to wear your nice armor/weapon on your character.

But it's not the case in Guild Wars 2 anymore. So I am here to ask devs just one thing, and I hope you'll see my message and answer me. You can carry on adding skins for mounts/armors/weapons on the gemme store, but can you add some nice ones to the game we can get by crafting or completing successes?

Thank you guys <3

Although I totally understand your sentiment. I also want to point out the other side of things. Cause of these gemstore skins, we have the living world. The stories, the maps and everything in it. I know some people spent over 100 USD in the store. Money not spent on the game if these things are not there. It means that Arenanet has to charge money for the living world. Or significantly increase the price of expansions. Or do the nasty monthly fee thing.

Just don't look at the gemstore if it makes you sad.

@mercury ranique.2170 said:Although I totally understand your sentiment. I also want to point out the other side of things. Cause of these gemstore skins, we have the living world. The stories, the maps and everything in it. I know some people spent over 100 USD in the store. Money not spent on the game if these things are not there. It means that Arenanet has to charge money for the living world. Or significantly increase the price of expansions. Or do the nasty monthly fee thing.

Just don't look at the gemstore if it makes you sad.

While most of what you said is true... There's a point to be made about Gold sinks.When PoF came out, and people got wind of the Griffon mount, gems got to an all time low since HoT launched. Why? Because people were selling gems for those 250 gold.Legitimate gold sales through the gem store are also a great way for them to make money! So in the end, with the right incentive they could still make money from this because a lot of people will buy gold with gems.Heck, i actually know a guy who did this exact same thing, and still wouldn't buy the 2000 gem mounts or that many outfits... He'd happily sell gems for gold to buy stuff like black lion weapon skins, but i don't think he had many outfits...

I'm pretty happy with the looks of eight of my nine characters, and all but one of them is geared with just drops/TP and crafted ascended stuff. One has an outfit, and I did buy a couple of nice mount skins, but I rarely see any gem armor I really want (but sure, YMMV). Aren't there ascended armor pieces or legendary weapons you like to work towards (I'm looking at you, Nevermore drool)?

I don't get the point, I agree that it would be nice to get more armor sets and weapons into the game but we actually do get new stuff with every LS Chapter and with every expansion, I too would like to see more but I can't really complain.

@Haseo.3901 said:But don't you think that sometimes players want to play to get that skins

We can still do that, you can farm gold and exchange gold for gems which is what I'm currently doing, I wanted the Abaddons Mask so I farmed gold until I could afford it.

Bro have you not seen the grind you have to do for all the new skins for back items weapons and other things that have recently came out? It's a grindfest. If I had the option to just pay 300g worth of gems for Brahams mace and shield vs grinding two weeks worth just to get the mats to make it would choose the gems option all the way. That way I wouldn't have to wait for all the time gated mats to make things and such. I've payed for gems using real money too but it's because as someone on this thread said earlier the money supports the good content.

@Aridon.8362 said:Bro have you not seen the grind you have to do for all the new skins for back items weapons and other things that have recently came out? It's a grindfest. If I had the option to just pay 300g worth of gems for Brahams mace and shield vs grinding two weeks worth just to get the mats to make it would choose the gems option all the way. That way I wouldn't have to wait for all the time gated mats to make things and such. I've payed for gems using real money too but it's because as someone on this thread said earlier the money supports the good content.

money supports all content if you deem it good or bad dont factor into it.

I must be missing something but what on earth do skins have to do with winning?Winning what?Skins are purely cosmetic.

I was tempting to stop reading when you said that you don't like Trahearne, but... it was worth to continue.Skins are "additional value" that are put in the shop in many other MMOs, they cannot be considered p2w items, at all. You find them awesome, but that's your personal taste, I still have my basic leather skins because I like it even more than the ascended one or any other outfit in the gem store. Actually Anet allows us to buy everything (apart from expansions) just farming in-game money, and this is neat. You can see this procedure as part of your hard work/grind as well, if you want. That's not that different from completing an achievement: play the game as you want (without being forced to complete a long and boring quest) and then buy whatever you want.

This game is able to go on because there are people who pay for "rare" items, that are not necessarily the best looking ones. Think about the perma-white dye or the legendary weapons. I like much more my electric-purple dye and my current weapon skin. But they are "cheap" items, so most of the players don't use them. If some mount skin was put as reward for some achievement, I'm sure no one will use it anyway, because it would look too cheap and common. Probably they would cry "gj Anet, you put the worst skin ever", regardless of the chosen skin.

@Haseo.3901 said:But I am sad and upset. When I see all that stuff coming on the gemme store, it kinda breaks my heart to see a game like this one using this kind of system. It is not that I am against cash shops in video games as long as it is not pay to win and I know you guys have to pay your employees. But I am angry everytime I see a new armor/weapon/mount skin in the gemme store. Most of them are incredibly beautiful and it shows how talented your designers are. But don't you think that sometimes players want to play to get that skins instead of using their credit cards? (or convert lots of gold into gemmes) In Guild Wars 1, when you wanted to have a beautiful armor, you had to work to get it, to gather gold, materials, ... to craft it. And at the end you were proud of youself, because you had to move your kitten to wear your nice armor/weapon on your character.

Fun fact: there is several thousands of armor and weapon skins in GW2. A very small amount of them are in the gemstore.

i wish they would let us dye weapons.... sigh

I bought skins and preferrably outfits that don't need transmutes, mount skins as well and pets. With the expception of Grenth's outfit and Necro glider wings, I forgot about them as soon as I bought them. Recently bought Marjorie's dagger, some staff and the new rifle skin. I'll apply it it to a weapon, forget about it and probably look back at my skin collection as soon as I got a real nice set of gear. But do I need it, nope. Grenth's and Necro glider are my only favourites as well as my cute plush Aurene. And that's all of my collection of purchased cosmetics. The 2000g mount skins I'll pass.imo consider these skins for supporting the game, not as a musthave to enjoy the game. Believe me it's not worth it, there will always be something else that you want as well.