Obvious Alias.3602

I very rarely post, but this has been a topic of interest to me for the last couple of weeks, and I'm disappointed enough in this response that I feel it's worth speaking up. How in the world are you pretending that it's fair 'compensation' to give me PART of the functionality I already earned back at SOME non-specific future date, AFTER I will have had to already re-earn at least part of the functionality you're taking away from me? Or am I just expected to run around with an empty relic slot or use whatever basic default relics are given out until... whenever you actually implement legendary relics? It feels like I bought a Ferrari - I worked my kitten off and saved up for it, handed my money over to the dealership and drove off with my dream car. Then today I woke up to a note pinned on my door saying "Hey! We've decided that going forward, cars and engines are going to be separate purchases. This is great for you, the customer, because now you can customize to your heart's content! Because of this change, we've reposessed your car's engine while you were sleeping. But don't worry! We're going to give you a worse loaner engine, and you'll get part of your original engine back sometime in the next year and a half. Happy driving! :)" So now I'm screwed either way. I can use the crappy loaner engine for the next year, despite the pact I paid for a Ferrari engine, or I can suck it up and pay for a nicer engine immediately to replace the one the dealership stole; but then when I (someday, who knows when) get 'part' of my original engine (that I paid for in full) back, and then pay whatever extra I have to pay to get my original engine actually working again, my interim engine is just going to be a paperweight that I wasted even more money on. In short, I'm going to be honest: I was on the fence about this expansion already, based on the quality of other content in the last few years. I'm not coming here to say "THIS CHANGE IS WHY I'M NOT BUYING THE NEW XPAC!1!!1" But I am going to say that this change was the straw that broke the camel's back for me: I will CERTAINLY not be pre-ordering, and whether I purchase it at all is up in the air, but leans toward 'no.' I know that must get said (screamed) all the time on these forums, but in all the years I've been playing, this is the first time I've ever even considered not buying an expansion. Bad writing and gaudy art was something I could look at and sigh and say "well... at least they tried" about. Blatant disrespect for my time and effort is not.

How about -- and I know this is crazy -- you make some of the existing/future gemstore items more versatile by giving them a freaking toggle for all the weird crap glued all over them. Let me turn off all the spikes/chains/skulls/sparkles the same way I turn off my helmet. There are a fair number of currently existing outfits I'd buy in a heartbeat if they didn't look like an 8-year-old with a goth-edition bedazzler had gotten hold of them. Just a few examples: Executioner's Outfit: Why does it have a skull over my crotch? Who thought this was a good idea? Was it the same person that thought putting claws over my boobs was a good plan? And that noose with that purse? Please, sister.Bloody Prince: Again, I love the basic outfit, but um... why would I WANT to have foot long spikes growing from my shoulders?Champion of Tyria: "HUGE BABY FACE ON THE SHOULDER!" Like, who said that when they were pitching it to marketing and how did they not get slapped?Crystal Nomad: Nice outfit, too bad you can't see it under all the random floaty crap.Imperial: REALLY with the shoulder... things?Bandit sniper: Ok, I didn't list knives above, but just add knives to the list already. At least this one doesn't have a huge dagger coming out of my... pelvis like certain other equipment I might mention.Marjory's: Please, skulls, stop.There are plenty of other fashion catastrophes that are almost good, as well. Don't misunderstand me: I know some people want to be sparkly and skull-encrusted and have knives coming out of their... places. I'm not telling you to stop making armor for them. But for the love of god, release a bedazzler-free version for the rest of us as well. In other news, unrelated and less likely request: The option to purchase new voice packs for the player characters.

So I've been playing for years and this is the first thing to piss me off enough to make a post on the forums. I will happily pay 10-15 bucks for a skin I want here and there. I will not -- I CAN not in good conscience -- spend 100+ bucks for one or two mount skins I want and 28ish skins I don't. I refuse. This is a straight-up ripoff. I will not spend a dime on these, and frankly, I'm angry enough about this that I'm tempted to forego my usual monthly(ish) gem stipend for a while until I see which way you guys plan to go with the gem store in the long term. This does NOTHING positive for the players; it only encourages the release of inflated numbers of sub-par skins to water down the pool of skins in the future, making the entire scenario continually worse for players. I want to choose what I spend my gems on. I want to be able to vote with my wallet by ignoring paid content I dislike and paying for content I desire. This has removed my ability to do so when it comes to mount skins (something I had been EAGERLY awaiting spending money on since the day PoF launched,) and incentivized the release of low-quality content. Lose-lose for me, and the only way I have to pay that back to ArenaNet is to drag them down with me by cutting them off from my wallet.